small holes on face of emperor

[BengBear]

Hi,
Recently, I realised that there are small holes (largest 1mm diameter) on the cheek, above the eyes and along its lateral line.

Is this due to lack of good food such as vitamins. I tried feeding Kent Marine ZooPlex (contain Aquacultured marine zooplankton, Omega 3 Fatty acids, crude protein). It did not go away. Instead increase nitrates from 20ppm to around 80ppm. Did 25% water change and nitrates level is still same. Will be apply AZ NO3, a nitrate remover which is reef safe.

Questions:
1) how to resolve the holes problem?
2) why ZooPlex bring up nitrates so quickly?

Help needed.

 

[n.son29]

sounds like HLLE. Use selcon or vita-chem to soak your food. Hopefully, this would help

 

[BengBear]

thanks for advise.
I feed them with Dr Bassleer's Forte Biofish food which contain
Vitamin A 17000IU/kg
Vitamin D3 3000IU/Kg
Vitamin C 250 mg/Kg
Vitamin E 400 IU/Kg
Copper 30mg/Kg
and others proteins, Antioxidant
I had been feeding them for about 1 year with the above and they were alright until I switch it to ReefMax which claims it contain Vitamins (with no details) for some 2months. Notice the holes problem some 1 month ago and the water Nitrate was 20ppm or less. (don't think is the nitrates as it was around this level during the 1 year period)

This is when I started to feed Kent Marine Zoaplex and nitrate increase suddenly to 140ppm. Changed 25% water and added AZ-NO3 (for 3 days), and Nitrate is around 80ppm. Reverted to Dr Bassleer food after reading your article.

Result: emperor angel is still having holes unheel yet. But nothing seems to go wrong with Koran and yellow angel, Regal and Naso Tangs.

pH is stable around 8.4 to 8.6. Other fish only parameter are about normal.

I am not sure, how long do I have to wait for the heeling to take place.

Any suggestion.